Publications
Postal CodesOM by Federal Ridings File (PCFRF) 2003 Representation Order, Reference Guide
June 2013
4. Technical specifications
Record layout and data descriptions
File specifications
Software formats
System requirements
Installation instructions
Geographic representation
File naming convention
Record layout and data descriptions
Table 4.1
Postal CodesOM by Federal Ridings File (PCFRF) record layout
| Position | Size | TypeNote 1 | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | C | Postal codeOM |
| 7 | 5 | C | Federal electoral district code |
| 12 | 56 | C | Federal electoral district name - English |
| 68 | 56 | C | Federal electoral district name - French |
| 124 | 1 | C | Unique link |
| 125 | 3 | C | Weight |
|
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Postal codeOM
The postal codeOM is a six-character alphanumeric code defined and maintained by Canada Post Corporation (CPC) for the sortation and delivery of mail.
The alphanumeric characters are arranged in the form ANA NAN, where 'A' represents a letter of the alphabet and 'N' a numeric digit. The first character of a postal codeOM (allocated in alphabetic sequence from east to west across Canada) represents a province or territory or a major sector entirely within a province.
The first three characters represent a set of well-defined and stable areas known as the forward sortation area© (FSA©). Rural FSAs© are identifiable by the presence of a '0' in the second position of the FSA© code.
The last three characters identify the local delivery unit (LDU). In population centres, the LDU can specify a small and easily defined area within an FSA© such as block-face (one side of a city street between consecutive intersections with streets), an apartment building, an office building, or a large firm or organization which does large volume business with the post office. In rural areas, the LDU denotes a service area – the area serviced by rural route delivery from a post office or station (e.g., a rural route, general delivery, or post office box).
Federal electoral district code
A federal electoral district (FED) is any place or territorial area entitled to return a member to serve in the House of Commons. FED legal limits and descriptions are the responsibility of the Chief Electoral Officer, and are usually revised every ten years after the results of the decennial census. The 2003 Representation Order is the most current revision, and is based on 2001 Census population data. This code uniquely identifies a federal electoral district – 2003 Representation Order. The first two digits identify the province or territory.
Federal electoral district name – English
This contains the English name of the federal electoral district from the 2003 Representation Order.
Federal electoral district name – French
This contains the French name of the federal electoral district from the 2003 Representation Order.
Unique link
The unique link value given in the file can be either '1,' which indicates the postal codeOM is linked to one FED, or '2,' which indicates that the postal codeOM is linked to two or more FEDs.
Weight
The 'weight' estimates the proportion of the population of a postal codeOM that resides within each FED. If a postal codeOM is linked to only one FED in the PCFRF, the weight is equal to 1. When a postal codeOM is linked to more than one FED, the sum of weights for that postal codeOM equals 1.0.
File specifications
The current version of the Postal CodesOM by Federal Ridings File (PCFRF) is an ASCII file and does not include any software or instructions on how to use the product within specific Geographical Information Systems (GIS) or mapping packages.
Software formats
Not applicable
System requirements
Not applicable
Installation instructions
Not applicable
Geographic representation
Not applicable
File naming convention
The naming convention for PCFRF data files is bilingual and reflects the reference date (June 2013) of the Canada Post Corporation data used in the release. The file name for this release is pcfrfNatFED2003_JUN13_fcpcefNatCEF2003.zip.
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